


Don't Think

by MachineQueen



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, F/F, Femslash February
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 13:09:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9608876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MachineQueen/pseuds/MachineQueen
Summary: Emerald loves Cinder and Cinder loves to tease her.Angsty with a touch of raunchiness.





	

“Well now. This isn’t dust,” says Cinder but she doesn’t sound cross. She gently curls her hand around the hairclip that Emerald snatched on a whim. It had glittered in the corner of her eye and before Emerald had properly had time to think, she’d already taken it.

“I thought it would look pretty in your hair,” Emerald says. Then she drops her gaze, embarrassed. The hairclip is blue and green, lace and feather and shiny ribbon tucked under a sparkling silver dust crystal. Emerald suddenly worries that it’s too gaudy, that she shouldn’t have disobeyed orders and-

“Put it in for me,” says Cinder. With a barely concealed trembling hand Emerald slides it into the dark sweep of Cinder’s hair and fastens it in place. Their faces are very close now and Cinder’s gaze burns into her.

“Does it look pretty?” asks Cinder, lifting her fingers to Emerald’s cheek. 

“Y-yes.”

“You’re sweet,” says Cinder. “Kiss me.”

Emerald does and Cinder laughs, breathy and low. It's the two of them against the world. Someone, at long last, is on Emerald's side.

XxX

Emerald wakes up with the smell of ashes in her nostrils but that just means Cinder’s still asleep next to her. And that’s fine; if Emerald could spend the rest of her life curled up with Cinder then she would. Unfortunately she knows that Cinder’s got big plans for the world, plans that Emerald only half knows about and half understands.

“Mmmm,” says Cinder, stirring. “Don’t move,” she says, her whisper baby soft in Emerald’s ear. 

Emerald doesn’t have to be told twice and she’s happy to lie still while Cinder presses her lips to the hollow of her neck, then nips her there lightly. 

“You belong to me,” says Cinder and she runs a palm down Emerald’s torso, skimming over shoulder, breast and hip. That hand feels good, makes Emerald’s skin prickle. In her mind’s eye she concocts a fantasy world where she and Cinder have made a paradise all of their own. Cinder is wearing sheer lingerie, the kind that’s very expensive, stolen by Emerald.

The fantasy bubble pops when Cinder claims Emerald’s lips and Emerald kisses her, eager to please. Cinder sighs into her mouth but, like always, the moment is over too soon. There’s work to be done and orders to follow. 

XxX

Months later and Cinder is distant, a glimmer of a star on the horizon. Emerald hasn’t slept in Cinder’s bed since their arrival in Vale. She finds herself not just craving but starving for attention. Her teeth itch when Cinder spends an evening draped over Roman Torchwick, whispering things that make him smirk. Mercury notices and slings an arm around her shoulders, flinging flirtatious barbs ‘in case you were feeling left out.’ He’s trying to console her, she thinks, but he’s still an irritant. At least bickering with him takes the edge off. 

She finds herself trying harder to impress but Cinder is on edge and she doesn’t take well to Emerald going off on her own, even with Mercury in tow. No amount of stolen gifts quell the tension in Cinder’s shoulders so Emerald stops bringing them, especially when she overhears Torchwick comparing her to a cat bringing home dead mice for its master and expecting a thank you. 

Emerald's almost done with the lot of them. If she doesn't have Cinder, then what's the point?

The night before the Fall of Beacon, right as Emerald is considering her options, Cinder summons her. Perches on the edge of the desk and crooks a finger, come here.

Emerald approaches slowly, not sure what to expect. Perhaps Cinder knows she's having doubts. Is she going to be...punished...?

“I’ve a gift for you,” Cinder husks. Emerald feels as though she’s being mocked and her face flushes. She’s about to protest when Cinder stands slowly, her shoes clinking. Then she shrugs out of the shoulders of her dress, lets the red silk slide down her body. 

Emerald swallows, moves in and Cinder leans close to whisper in her ear. 

“Your loyalty has not gone unnoticed.”

Cinder takes Emerald’s hands and places them on her body and Emerald can’t help but trace it. The curves of Cinder’s hips and breasts fit into Emerald’s hands exactly, as though they were made just for her. Cinder kisses her hard and Emerald lets herself get lost, not thinking, just feeling. 

XxX

The wind howls and Emerald wonders what keeps everyone inside Salem’s hideout safe from the Grimm outside. The sound of the wind is punctuated by monstrous howls and Emerald can’t possibly sleep somewhere like this. Not even with Cinder by her side. 

Cinder twists and turns in her sleep, wriggles like something is eating away at her from the inside. Emerald hates seeing her this way, snarling and twitching like a wounded animal. Was she dreaming of Beacon tower, of huntresses with silver eyes? There was no way of knowing and Cinder could no longer tell her. 

“Hey,” Emerald whispers. “Cinder. Are you having a bad dream?” 

She pokes at Cinder’s shoulder, until Cinder opens her good eye. Her gaze is one of irritation and she unceremoniously shoves Emerald, hard and aggressive enough that Emerald tumbles out of bed. She lands on the floor with an ‘oof’. 

“S-sorry. I thought maybe I should wake you up…”

A croaky sigh and hiss and Emerald has to crouch close to hear it but it makes her blood run cold.   
“D-d-don’t think.”

The rest of the mantra goes unsaid- don’t think, obey. And hadn’t Emerald done just that? She had literally followed Cinder into hell; what more did Cinder want from her? And who was there to comfort Cinder after the agony of her ‘treatment’? Who waited on her hand and foot? 

I’ve been so stupid, thinks Emerald. Yet she knew that a single smile, a single word of praise from Cinder would change everything, make it all worth it. 

Cinder hisses again, not at Emerald but in pain. And this time she lets Emerald crawl back onto the bed and hold her. Cinder’s body seems to vary from being hot enough to burn to cold enough to give Emerald frostbite, but it doesn’t matter. 

Voicing it would be a mistake but Emerald’s seen Salem’s domain, seen the horror of it. Soupy lakes full of Grimm and ill-feeling cloak the place and twist in Emerald’s gut. She wants to leave. No one could ever find happiness in a place like this. And then there was the scariest thing, the thing Emerald was doing her best to ignore- Cinder not being in control anymore. Emerald’s seen the way Salem looks at her and at Mercury, like they’re things to be devoured. How long can Cinder protect them, when she can’t even protect herself? 

“I’m here,” she says into Cinder’s hair but she can’t stop wondering- for how long?

The thought makes her cling to Cinder harder because it’s the only thing she can do. It takes her a few moments to realise that Cinder’s clinging back, her nails digging into Emerald’s skin. 

She dares to hope that perhaps Cinder still needs her. 

Of all the treasures Emerald has coveted, the one she longs for most is Cinder's heart.


End file.
